Gay Islamist Hardliner is New Tunisian Prime Minister

Tunisia is where the Arab Spring began when a Muslim man full of sexist fury at being slapped by a female police officer set himself on fire. From such glorious beginnings, the Arab Spring spread across the region bringing Islamist victories with it.

The Islamist Ennahdha Party took Tunisia but then faced a major backlash as the Salafists began terrorizing the country with the apparently complicity of the government.

Ali Laarayedh was the Minister of the Interior and was therefore held responsible for the the brutal crackdown on labor protesters. While Ennahdha pretended to be interested in reconciling with liberals, the elevation of a thug like Ali Laarayedh sends another sort of message entirely. And the message is that the Islamists will continue to engage in the violent suppression of Tunisians who want a free country.

UPDATE: Multiple comments have come in from Tunisia claiming that Ali Laarayedh is “a gay”, “not a guy and honor man”, that the video tape was fake, that the video shows Ali being raped, that Ali was drugged at the time and that Ali was not gay, but his gay sex partner was.

Finally there is this message from Free Tunisian

To this sick author ….
Congrats … You just made yourself famous among +10 millions Tunisians proud of their revolution
We will never forget.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

how did you know that bouazizi was full of sexist fury?
you write about us in the exact and foolish way that fanatic muslims write about occident!

DADDOUCH

FrontPage Magazine is a conservative online political magazine, edited by David Horowitz and published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center , a non-profit organization in Los Angeles, California.So you can't really be surprised when seeing such articles aiming to disfigure islam and muslim people.I would like to say also that the writer did not tell facts as he should,just personnal opinions.the man who set himself on fire(bouazzizi) was a poor mandepresses,not living properly.He put all his frustration on the municipality female employee who was controling his illegal work tools (namely scales(as he was selling vegetables on a mobile wagon),he cursed her so as a reaction,she slapped him so he went in front of the municipality and set himself on fire.As for Mr Ali Laarayadh the actual PM ,i would like to say that every kind of torture were permitted during the dictator ben Ali ,so he was taking video tapes for his political opponnents to blackmail them.So dont be surprised .A word for the writer please Mr inform yourself before writing such trash,iam a tunisian girl and i know stories about your country more than you know ,you americans think you are the center of the world but guess what you are very ignorant about what happens in the rest of the world with regard to geography history of the world,so please stay in your ivory tower and leave us in peace,

mokhtar

First of all the minister is not gay and he will never be, the video was fake and this was a regular practices for the old regime to attak his oppsers and most of the Tunisian people are aware of that. you mentioned the word gay to attract the audiance and you putted in a negative prespective in the other hand we find a noumerous politicians in the USA are gay but you will never be able or you will never have the bravery and the guts to criticize them for their gender. you know well that you will never see the light for the rest of your life. we did not see you writing about the bruttel regime we had it for 23 years.

daddouch

ech 9awlkom fi hajma tounsiyya 3al page mte3ou

SEMY

Shame on you frontpagemag, you make story based on a fake video !It is shameful how you judge people

Iskandar

that chose this title is a true gay

Mourad

I’m very surprised that an American Electronic magazine can be more poor then local (Tunisian) magazines after this revolution. Our history is more wide then yours…

FreeTunisian

WRONG INFO
To our friends out there, if someone tell that the south african aprtheid regime is saying the Nilson mandela is guy and never been free fighter … would you belive him ??
this is exactly the same, it is a propaganda of the ex Tunisian dictator (Ben Ali) against his opponents, the new prime minster is not guy, and he was among the brave men and women of Tunisia who stood up against opression and dcitaorship he has been stencenced to death on tow ocasions … You can read more details below,

Please don't not insult our revolution,
if you are ignorant please read the facts,
if you know this is wrong … Then you must have some serious PBS !!!

Ali Larayedh was born on 15 August 1955 into a farming family in Mednine in Southern Tunisia.

He studied in Mednine until his Baccaleaureate before moving to Sousse and Tunis where he studied at the Commercial Marine School, graduating as an engineer in 1980.

He worked as an engineer but was forced to leave his job as a result of harassment and repression and his work in the Islamic Tendency Movement.

Ali Larayedh joined the Islamic Tendency Movement as a high school student in Mednine.

At university, Larayedh emerged as a student leader and joined the Movement's student leadership. Following his graduation in 1980, he joined the Movement's leadership.

Following the arrest of the Movement's leaders in 1981, leadership passed to the younger generation, with Hammadi Jebali becoming the movement's leader and Larayedh the Head of the Consultative (Shura) Council from 1982 to 1986.

Larayedh headed the Movement's 1984 and 1986 national conferences. At the same time, he also led the "Priorities Project" which produced a number of important papers on the Movement's nature, its vision of change and its organisational structure.

With the crackdown on the Movement by Bourguiba's regime in 1987, Larayedh was sentenced to death in absentia. He was arrested in October 1987 and was made to wear the execution suit. Following Ben Ali's coup later that year, Larayedh was re-tried and a new death sentence issued against him, which was later reduced to life imprisonment. He was released at the end of 1988 by presidential pardon as part of what was known as the phase of political openness. Larayedh continued to be part of the leadership of the Movement (renamed Ennahdha), as a member of its executive and head of its political bureau from 1988 and as acting spokesperson from 1990.

With the resumption of the regime's crackdown following the 1989 elections, Larayedh was re-arrested in December 1990. He was tried in 1992 in a military court alongside other Ennahdha leaders and sentenced to 15 years in prison, of which 13 were spent in solitary confinement.

In addition to physical torture, the early 90s saw numerous pressures and attempts to blackmail Larayedh, most notoriously the publication of an article alleging the existence of a videotape implicating him in a sexual scandal.

Larayedh was conditionally released on 2 April 2004 and placed under administrative control requiring him to sign in daily at police stations and not to leave the capital.

Following his release and despite harassment, Larayedh returned to political work, contributing, with other Ennahdha leaders and leftist, liberal and nationalist party leaders to the formation of the 18 October Committee for Rights and Liberties at the end of 2005, working with others within this committee to produce important papers laying a common basis for democratic life. These included papers on the equality of men and women, the relationship between religion and state, political pluralism and freedom of conscience.

Larayedh also contributed in the years before the revolution to the re-building of Ennahdha underground, due to severe Government repression. In the period before the revolution, Larayedh was arrested several times and threatened with violence against his wife and 3 children.

Following the revolution and Ennahdha's return to public work and legalisation as a political party, Larayedh headed the Party's Founding Council which acted as the Party's Consultative Council until the 9th National Conference in July 2012. Larayedh contributed to the re-building of the Party and its political strategy and electoral plan. He also participated in Yadh Ben Achour's Committee together with 11 other parties to produce recommendations for management of the transition phase.

After Ennahdha won the 23 October elections, Larayedh was appointed Interior Minister in PM Hammadi Jebali's government, a position he held for 14 months, facing a number of challenges, the latest being the assassination of the leading Popular Front politician Chokri Belaid. He also addressed the National Constituent Assembly on several occasions to answer deputies' questions.

Following the resignation of Mr Hammadi Jebali, Ennahdha Party carried out internal democratic consultations and a vote by its Consultative Council, leading to the nomination of Larayedh as Prime Minister.

Knize10

No wonder the Muslims are still living as if itsstill the 8th century. Nothing good is coming out of this.

FreeTunisian

To this sick author ….
Congrats … You just made yourself famous among +10 millions Tunisians proud of their revolution
We will never forget.

Dino

The writer stopped exactly before the end. He failed to mention that the tape was trickedd by the MoI of the former regime, when the actual minister spent 16 years in jail and refused to recognize that regime, the same regime that was ultimately ousted in a massive popular uprising.